Stay

The Story Behind the Song

Stay began with a message on Instagram.

Finnish singer and songwriter Mirkka Liesmäki reached out with a vocal idea that immediately caught my attention. At the time, I was listening to a lot of vocal progressive trance, and there was something about her songwriting that felt like a natural fit for the direction I wanted to explore.

As with most collaborations, the biggest challenge wasn't writing new ideas — it was finding the right home for the ones that already existed. Mirkka's vocal had a strong emotional identity from the very beginning, but it took several different arrangements before everything finally clicked. The more I worked on the production, the more I realized the music didn't need to compete with the story. It needed to support it.

That process ended up shaping the entire track. Rather than chasing bigger drops or more complex arrangements, I focused on creating enough space for the emotion in the vocal to remain at the center. Looking back, I think that's what gives Stay its identity.

The lyrics explore the painful moment when trust begins to unravel. What starts as a promise to stand by someone through life's challenges gradually becomes a reminder of everything that wasn't kept. It's a story about betrayal, but also about the difficult process of accepting that the person you believed in may never have existed in quite the way you imagined.

Collaborating with Mirkka was one of the most rewarding parts of the project. Her ability to communicate vulnerability without ever feeling melodramatic gave the song a sincerity that I wanted the production to match rather than overshadow.

At its core, Stay is about discovering that the hardest part of betrayal isn't losing another person — it's letting go of the future you believed you were building together.

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Tunnel Vision

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One Last Night

Stay
When we stay, we stay
Through the storm and the rain
Through the rain
When we stay,
We stay, we stay
Through the storm and the rain, we stay

It's past midnight, around a quarter to two
I'm reminiscing 'bout the love that we knew
And I'm fading, thought we were making
Something lasting, but I'm questioning it all
Saw your messages with someone else's name
You had me believing we were playing the same game
I'm broken, trust has been stolen
I thought it was forever, you and I

I think about the promises
I hear them in my head
'Cause love, right now, got me falling apart
And I can't understand
How these were your words

Stay
When we stay, we stay
Through the storm and the rain
We stay
Stay
When we stay, we stay
Through the storm and the rain
We stay

Memories flash of the night that we kissed
You showed me magic that I'll always miss
Took me dancing in the moonlight
Made me feel like I was dreaming, mm mm mm
You think I'm lying when you know it's the truth
Nobody else could love me quite like you do
All my secrets and my healing
Ain't nobody closer than us

Stay
When we stay, we stay
Through the storm and the rain
We stay
We stay

Stay
When we stay, we stay
Through the storm and the rain
We stay
Stay
When we stay, we stay
Through the storm and the rain
We stay